Mrs. Fearnow's To Dish Out Its Last Bowl Of Brunswick Stew

Successful Business Grew From Modest Start In Kitchen

RICHMOND — As George Fearnow swept his fingertips across his grandmother's enamel stove, memories of Mrs. Fearnow's Delicious Brunswick Stew came rushing back.

It's easy to ease him back to the days when his grandmother tasted every batch to make sure it was right.

"I think she'd be shocked that we got this far," he said. "We didn't plan on getting this big."

During the Great Depression, the dream began on the white enamel stove. Backed by 40 State Fair ribbons, Lillie Pearl Fearnow began concocting huge batches of Brunswick stew to sell at nearby shops. Soon, the whole family was gathering around the old stove, pitching in, until finally the stove was replaced with industrial-size cookers.

Nonchalantly, George admits someone has bought that old stove.

Its destination: Castleberry-Snow's Brands Inc. in Bedford. The Atlanta-based food company bought Fearnow Bros. Inc. in July, and the deal is set to be settled at the end of the month.

"Memories are more important than this," he said. "This is nice, but memories are better, good memories."

The stew still dominates the top spots in the canned meat section of North Carolina and Virginia grocery stores, and production is being pushed to capacity. The plant has been expanded nine times, from a 20-by-40-foot building to one with more than 19,000 square feet.

All of that growth and success, George says, has just made him tired.

Most days at the Hanover County plant on Shady Grove Road run like a cook's timer reset after each ding: Finella Fearnow, George's mother, comes in from about 6 a.m. until noon, George works all day making sure the operation runs smoothly, and a busy production line churns out about 18,000 cans of Fearnow's stew and Black-Eyed Peas and Stewed Tomatoes a day.

On this day, and likely for the rest of the days this month, things are frantic. Machinery is acting up and the move is weighing on George's mind.

It's not the thought of emptying the plant he helped build or selling the family name. It's all the paperwork and moving he still faces.

The emotional part of leaving the decades-old company has virtually passed, George said. Not that there haven't been moments of questioning and reconsideration. But he's keeping his eyes fixed on the future; next year he'll work as a consultant for Castleberry.

"We've beaten the odds. Most family businesses don't last two generations, so we've beat the odds," George said.

Finella Fearnow feels a different sort of pressure. Finella, vice president of the company, has spent the best and worst of her 81 years building Fearnow Brothers' Cannery. The 20 or so people who work there, many of them for decades, are as close as family.

"We all work together out there and we all have fun," she said. "I'm going to miss it, I'll be honest."

But Finella Fearnow is a mother. So even more than she will miss tasting the stew right out of the pot and watching her adored chocolate pound cakes get gobbled up, and even more than she'll miss celebrating birthdays and laughing and joking and working with these people, she wants her son to relax.

"It's just this," she said, tears pooling in her eyes. "He needs a break."

"I been at it a long time," George adds with a wearied voice.

Workdays are long and the pressures are great and it can only get worse as the company grows. So he's getting out while the company is the cream at the top of the market.

"In the long run, you have to be small or real big. There is no in-between," George said. "If you could just stay this size, that would be great. But it can't happen."

So the Fearnows set out to find someone who would continue to make the stew using the same recipe George's grandmother, Lillie Pearl Fearnow, used to win those 40 State Fair ribbons.

"That was a big issue: Would we sell it if we thought the person buying it wouldn't keep up the quality?" George said. "We went around and around about who to sell it to."

Companies from all over Virginia and other states salivating over the thought of getting their spoons into the Fearnows' stew made their pitch to the family. Castleberry, George said, sounded the best.

"I'd like to see them succeed with it," he said. "We wish them luck. We really do."

The Fearnows' sales force will work for Castleberry. Raymond Fearnow, George's cousin and secretary-treasurer, will continue to market the stew for Castleberry alongside his wife, Martha. George's son, Patrick, is thinking about doing something related to telecommunications. Two office workers are considering setting out on their own small business. And George is trying to find jobs for the few factory workers who remain.

Finella insists she has plenty of options. "I'll find something to do, don't worry," she says, a mischievous smile lifting her wrinkled cheeks.

For now, George's thoughts are trained only on getting things ready for Castleberry.